Dr Jeffrey Wessler Of Heartbeat Health On 5 Things We Must Do To Improve the US Healthcare System

An Interview With Jake Frankel

Take insurance out of the hands of employers. Health insurance should be decoupled from the employer; this is a legacy dating back to the 1940s that has no rational place in our society and creates more problems than it’s worth.

As a part of our interview series called “5 Things We Must Do To Improve the US Healthcare System”, I had the pleasure to interview Dr. Jeffrey Wessler.

Dr. Jeff Wessler is a Cardiologist and the Founder and CEO at Heartbeat Health, the nation’s largest virtual-first cardiovascular company. Dr. Wessler graduated from Williams College, received an MPhil in public health and epidemiology from Cambridge University, and his MD from Harvard Medical School. Originally from Boston, Dr. Wessler is a father and an avid squash player.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Back in 2017, nearly a decade into my clinical training, I had just finished a difficult overnight cardiology shift managing critically ill patients with advanced cardiovascular disease. As I rode the NYC subway back to my Upper West Side apartment recounting the patients I had managed, and the decisions I had made that night, a lingering thought began growing. “There had to be a better way to reach patients, before they get so sick.”

As a practicing cardiologist, most of the care I have been privileged to provide in the past 10 years has been focused on advanced illness–patients with existing heart disease. These patients typically need care in order to reduce risk for worst case scenarios — including intense suffering or staving off death. This is incredibly valuable work that has been built on decades of data-driven research and alleviated the burden of cardiovascular disease for tens of millions of people.